What Happened to Talia Winters?
by PixieKayGirl
Summary: We know from the show what happened to Talia Winters when Lyta Alexander tripped her programming. We also know what Bester later claimed happened. But was he telling the truth? Did he even really know the truth? What REALLY happened to Talia Winters?


_A/N: This story picks up in "Divided Loyalties" (s2e19) with the last line Susan Ivanova says to Talia Winters - or rather, to Control, the personality that overtook Talia - before Talia's character is carted away, never to be seen again. From that one line from the show, the rest of it follows Talia/Control to show what really happened, and whether it matched what Bester later told Garibaldi happened (s3e6 "Dust to Dust")._

"You're right." Susan's face became hard. Or more accurately, it resumed the hardened state that it had grown accustomed to over the years and had only recently begun to soften out of. "You're not the Talia I knew." She whirled around and stalked out of the room.

Control sneered. The perfect features that were once Talia's were now contorted into a monstrous look, devoid of all Talia's compassion and heart.

Deep within, buried in a corner of her brain, Talia Winters beat on the wall that held her. "NO! Susan! I'm here, Susan! Get me out!"

Control started at this, and turned its attention within. "What are you doing here?" it demanded. "You're not supposed to be here!"

Talia drew back for a moment, then realized—unsure how she knew—that Control could not get in. She may be trapped in here, but at least for now, she was safe.

**B5B5B5B5B5B5B5B5**

Alfred Bester leaned on the edge of his desk, watching. He'd known Talia was a plant, of course—or rather, that personality hidden inside her was. Even if he hadn't known it, he'd seen signs of it a few times. Control was strong, strong enough to assert itself a little sometimes without Talia ever realizing anything was different. He was sure that was what had happened when Talia had helped him take down some rogue telepaths traveling an underground that went through the station.

He frowned at the memory. Something about that incident had never sat right with him, but he could never pin down why either. At any rate, when Talia had looked at him after taking down the blips and so sincerely said, "The Corps is mother, the Corps is father," he was almost sure Control was asserting itself in that situation. Talia had always been loyal, but not enough to shoot fellow teeps, blips or not.

So he knew Control was strong, and would really work to wipe out Winters's natural personality. But he'd also seen enough strange things in his time—especially on Babylon 5—to know better than to take it all at face value.

For that reason, before he spoke to Control he watched it to verify that there were no remaining parts of Talia visible.

He had been watching for hours. Others entered the room, spoke with it, left the room. One brought food. Another asked a few simple questions. A few mundanes were in the mix of visitors, to see how she reacted to them.

None of it was terribly poignant or pointed. Just enough to give him an idea of what they were dealing with. The whole point had been to take down the command staff of Babylon 5. If only Control hadn't been tripped early, they would have succeeded, at the same time they were going to succeed in taking down several other complexes and bases. But Control had somehow been tripped early, and if he could determine how he could plan for preventing such things in the future.

So he entered the room.

"Alright, Ms. Winters…."

Control all but hissed. "Alfred Bester, you know better."

He raised one eyebrow. "I do. I just wanted to know that you do too."

He felt her try to scan him, and easily blocked her. Then he tilted his head slightly. Jason had altered Talia, this he knew. He didn't know how or to what extent, but he knew she had more ability than this.

It wouldn't do to probe too soon though, so he started simply. "Tell me all you learned on Babylon 5."

Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be much. A few snippets here or there, but most of what it told him they already knew. "That's all?" he asked, disappointed.

It looked concerned at the question. "I assure you, Mr. Bester, if there was any more I would tell you. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father."

He patted its hand. "Of course. I have to ask, though, you understand."

"No you don't. You scanned me, so you already know it's true." This was not said maliciously, simply stated as truth. In fact, other than recoiling at being called Ms. Winters, it had been perfectly pleasant with him and every other teep that entered the room. The animosity only showed itself when a mundane walked in. Which only confirmed to him that either it was a _very_ good actor or, more likely, the programming really had gone according to plan. Talia's personality was destroyed and Control was perfectly loyal to Psi Corps.

Which made this next question rather difficult.

"Control, I have to be perfectly honest with you-when we chose Talia for you to be planted in, she was simply convenient and loyal. Raised by the Corps, fully indoctrinated. She actually volunteered for the assignment, did you know that?"

Control shook its head, and Bester continued smoothly. "She didn't know it, either. We had to remove all memories of the program to keep your existence hidden from her. Oh, she didn't know you were going to be in there. The program she volunteered for was simply to try to breed a better telepath, similarly to how her ex, Jason, was experimented on.

"And speaking of Jason-" He smiled his most disarming smile, and while to many people that disarming smile seemed to be remarkably _arming_, to Control it actually seemed to achieve its desired effect. "We know Mr. Ironheart gave Talia a certain . . . gift, when he, for lack of better wording, ascended out of his corporeal form. She could block things she shouldn't have been strong enough to block. We suspect he enhanced other abilities of hers as well. Have you noticed anything like that?"

Control furrowed its brow. "He did . . . he somehow blocked me from knowing, exactly, but he gave her something. There were times when she was about to do something with them that I couldn't watch anymore, like she locked me away without even knowing I was there in the first place." Its eyes lit up with an idea. "Oh, like when she was helping Doctor Franklin run those blips through B5! When you came for them, they had a plan to all get out but she locked me away before I could find out what it was. I couldn't see anything again until after they all left."

He frowned. "You mean when she and I left?"

"No, the next time I could see anything, you'd left and we were watching the blips walk away, with all the _mundanes_ that run that place and Talia chatting like best friends."

"That's . . . that's not right. That's not what happened." He muttered it softly to himself, but Control heard, undoubtedly out loud and mentally because for that moment he wasn't being very guarded.

"But it is," Control replied earnestly. "I'll show you." It sent the images to his head, confirming exactly what it had claimed.

"Son of-" He quickly reigned in his emotions. They would get to the truth soon enough, one way or another. "Here, I'll show you what I know." He sent the images exactly as he'd seen them. Talia talking about something happening when the gloves came off, Talia and the others touching hands, Talia ducking down, tossing him a gun, shouting, "Now!" All ending with numerous telepaths and Talia telling Bester, "The Corps is mother, the Corps is father."

Control frowned. "No, I'm sure that's not it." It concentrated but couldn't access any of her personal memories. "I'm sorry, I just don't know what happened while she blocked me."

Bester frowned too. "You should be able to access all her memories now."

"I can't. I'm trying, but I can't."

His frown inexplicably managed to deepen even further. "He couldn't have made her so strong as to put up walls that would remain after she was purged . . . no, he couldn't have."

Control leaned forward eagerly. "What must I do?"

"What?" His head snapped up, scrutinizing it again, inside and out.

"What must I do? The Corps needs the information. What do you require of me?"

Bester took only a moment to mentally review all the options and draw his conclusion. "You'll have to have a deep scan done. And then . . . I think we'd like to take a look at your brain."

"Okay."

"You understand, that means we'll have to . . . ."

"Kill this body. Understood."

He raised his eyebrows. "Just like that?"

"Whatever you need. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father."

In all his time in the Corps, Bester had never tired of hearing those words, but from this conversation he was right on the brink of it.

"One more question, though. How were you released early?"

It growled. "A rogue teep found out about me, came on the station, and was sending the code to all the people's minds to see who had me."

"What was this rogue teep's name?"

"I-I don't know." Its eyes opened wide in concern. "I don't know. I thought I knew but . . . I don't. I can't find the name anywhere."

Bester nodded. "I see. Well, thank you, Control. If you don't mind waiting here for a little bit longer, we'll get things set to start the procedures soon."

"Of course. The Corps is mother, the Corps-"

He closed the door behind him before it finished saying it yet again.

Talia paced her prison with ever-increasing rapidity. She could hardly be considered safe trapped in a secluded corner of her own brain. She had no idea how she'd gotten here, no idea how to get out. She'd tried to stop Control from sharing too much information, but from within her confines the most she could do was reach out and grab Lyta's name, hiding it in her prison with her and her knowledge of the rogue telepaths' escape.

She started to think. If she could do that, what else could she do? What else was in that brain that the Corps shouldn't know? She thought back to any secrets Susan might have let her in on, but there was nothing significant. Nothing she knew was a problem, anyway. So she took the only other things she knew she had to protect-her relationship with Susan, so the Corps couldn't lash out against her with that; and her gift from Jason. Amazingly, Control hadn't seemed able to access the gift anyway, but it had memories and she had to make sure those memories were gone.

But the problem still remained: how would she get out of here and get rid of Control entirely? Time was running desperately low. She'd heard Control agree-happily-to be their test subject. She'd heard Bester and a couple other psi cops she couldn't identify all confirming that they were ready for the deep mind probe. Very deep.

With no way out, she only hoped the walls would hold. There was nobody to cry out to for help. She had been perfectly willing to shout to Susan that she was still in there-she knew Susan had very mild latent telepathic abilities, though she wasn't sure Susan herself was aware of it. She had only noticed it by accident one day, and certainly wouldn't tell anyone, but she'd been hoping that tiny bit would be enough to hear her screaming to be released from her prison. But on Earth it was different than Babylon 5. Even if the other telepaths could hear her cries for help, they wouldn't offer any. It would only give them a place to focus their attack.

So she grabbed her relationship with Susan, carefully leaving behind previous general interactions and the hostility Susan had had toward her near the beginning. At the last second, it occurred to her to grab the knowledge of Susan's latent telepathy as well. If the Corps found out about that, Susan would be destroyed. She would let herself be destroyed before she would ever be taken by the Corps.

She set them all carefully in the middle of the room, then huddled down with them and waited.

It didn't take long. She heard the carefully constructed walls around her crumbling as surely as if they were solid matter. From the force that she could somehow both hear and feel, they must have several telepaths working together to break through all of this. She smiled slightly. It would take a lot of effort, wouldn't it? What a gift Jason had given her.

But her smile faded as she saw the first cracks start. They started, two together, near one corner of the room, and spread slowly up in opposite directions, branching out into more as other cracks started on the other side. She grabbed the bits of information and hugged them close, ready for the end to come.

She expected darkness when everything broke apart, since they'd already cleared the rest of her mind of everything there was to find. But just as it all started to break, just as the dark started to seep through the cracks toward her, a blinding light washed over her instead, along with a peace she'd never expected. Then she heard it.

"Talia, come with me."

She blinked rapidly, trying to focus through all that she was seeing. Who was-? No. It couldn't be. It couldn't.

"Jason?"

He held his hand toward her, smiling. "It's time for the rest of your gift."

"My gift? You gave me . . . you gave me so much more than I first thought. How could there be more still?"

"I gave you the knowledge you needed so that, when you came to the end, instead of dying, you could join me, to become. Are you ready?"

She glanced around and realized that somehow, despite being in a completely different place, she could also still see the room where the psi cops were finally just breaking through her final walls, only to find, to their mutual confusion and frustration, that there was nothing inside. She watched Bester break his hand on a wall. She knew—without any doubt—that the hand was broken. Somehow the thought made her smile a little.

"Yes, I think I'm ready."

Then she glanced a little further and saw Babylon 5. "No, wait."

She started toward it almost automatically, stopping only as she noticed a weight in her hands. She quickly thrust the secrets toward Jason. "Hold these, please."

He shook his head. "I cannot hold those. Nor can memories be destroyed entirely. You must find a safe place for them."

She considered them a moment, then smiled again and nodded. "There's one more thing I have to do, then we'll go."

She was at the station almost before she'd finished thinking about going there. It was a matter of no work at all to find them - Susan and Michael, whom she'd intended to find separately but happened to find together, sharing a laugh over a cup of coffee. She knew she couldn't speak to them, not if she was anything like what Jason had . . . become.

But she had to find a way to communicate. She thought toward them as hard as she could, reached a hand out, touched their minds. She had no idea what she was doing or how, but a lifetime of training in her mental powers combined with a universe of newfound abilities all converged to give her the ability to speak to them, to the deepest recesses of their minds. She knew no conscious thought had entered, but could sense their calm, their peace. She knew her message had gotten through. _I'm alright. Anything Bester ever tells you about what happened to me, he's wrong. Whether he lies or thinks he's telling the truth, he's wrong. I'm alright._

Then she carefully lifted the secrets she held and pressed them back into Susan's mind, this mind now keeping both their memories of each other, even if some of them were hidden so deep she wouldn't even know they were there. What better way to hide them?

In less than an instant she was back at Jason's side. "Alright. Where are we going?"

He smiled and took her hand. "Oh, Talia. I couldn't begin to describe the wonders that are in store for you."


End file.
